The Father of Lies
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4.5 • 2 Ratings
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- $6.99
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- $6.99
Publisher Description
Bringing together K. J. Parker’s recent novellas and novelettes, totaling over 500 pages of wry, twisty fiction, Father of Lies delves into the arcane as never before. Set amid the world of Parker’s critically acclaimed novels and award winning stories, as well as our own, this volume reveals a side rarely glimpsed in his other works. Contained herein are the tales of creatures that pluck the strings of existence, exposing the seedy underbelly of ultimate power as only Parker can.
It begins with love, as it often does. In The Things We Do for Love Parker demonstrates the age old proverb “be careful what you wish for, you just might get it.” It continues with a fall from grace, in Downfall of the Gods, where a daughter of heaven unwittingly pits herself against her divine family. Demonic pacts are everywhere, in The Devil You Know, where Parker returns to Saloninus, his most iconic character who will finish what he started so many years ago. It ends with a beginning, in No Peace for the Wicked, as a New Pope is chosen to push back the darkness.
Filled with Parker’s hallmark wit and biting humor, The Father of Lies is an essential collection, not just for the dedicated fantasist, but for anyone committed to a great story well told. Like all of K. J. Parker’s brilliant fiction, these stories whisper the truth.
Just ask yourself, can you trust the Father of Lies?
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
Now that reclusive grimdark fantasy author Parker has been revealed to be the alter ego of humorous fantasist Tom Holt, he's free to deliver this large reprint collection that shows off his entire very wide range, from the funny and even absurd works usually produced as Holt to the sharp and sly stories associated with the Parker name. Unlike his longer Parker novels, which tend to focus on economics and human conflict, these tales often feature classic genre tropes such as magic and gods. The centerpiece (literally and figuratively), "The Devil You Know," features the con artist and philosopher Saloninus (familiar from Parker's novella "Blue and Gold") negotiating with a devil for an extended life span. It's an old concept each knows the other's trying to pull a fast one but the two characters play so well off each other that the story works as an updated and entertaining Socratic dialogue. "Downfall of the Gods," in which a goddess is forced to assign a task to a mortal she doesn't want to forgive, borders on Holt-style goofiness at times ("when you gotterdammerung, you gotterdammerung"). Parker's wit shines in the shortest tale, "Told by an Idiot," in which an array of peculiar artifacts and entities a demon in a bottle, a thinly disguised Shakespeare, the first copy of the Book of Job (written in Job's own handwriting) shape yet another story of a man finding a way to get his wish. Fans of both Parker and Holt will enjoy this fine collection.
